Kumasi, Nov. 13, GNA – The Allied Health Professions Council has asked the Government to take urgent steps to establish an allied health college for the professional development of individuals and ensure specialisation in various disciplines.
Dr Samuel Yaw Opoku, the Registrar of the Council, said specialisation by health professionals was critical to the provision of quality healthcare to the population and the role of allied health professionals could not be over-emphasised.
He was addressing the fifth session of the Induction and Oath Swearing Ceremony for newly qualified allied health graduates in Kumasi.
It was on the theme: “Effective Management of COVID-19: The Role of the Allied Health Professional”.
The graduates had completed diplomas in Prosthetics and Orthotics, Dietetic, Nutrition, Occupational Therapy, Health Information, Environmental Health and Physiotherapy, among other areas.
Dr Opoku commended the Government for employing more than 5,000 allied health professionals, whose certificates and qualifications were validated by the Council in the last two years.
He explained that delays in employing the graduates after their internship was previously a major challenge, but the situation had changed with the Ministry of Health clearing all backlogs of the allied health graduates.
“The agitations and red-band wearing unemployed Allied Health graduates are no more, all you have to do now is to pass your examinations and your postings will gradually follow,” he said.
Dr Opoku advised the graduates to work together with other health professionals to build a stronger healthcare team that would place the welfare of clients above all interests.
Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, said allied health professionals constituted a key part in the multi-disciplinary team in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and general healthcare delivery.
Their expertise in the testing regime, contact tracing, promoting recovery, clinical services, prevention and quality care of life had been very vital to the fight against COVID-19.
The success of Ghana in containing the pandemic, he said, would depend on the collective efforts of all health professionals, particularly those in the allied health profession.
Mr Osei-Mensah said the government was committed to developing the professions of allied health workers due to the important role they played in the health sector to provide higher standard of healthcare to Ghanaians.
He reminded the graduates to uphold the highest ethical standards in their practices and accept postings to serve in the rural communities and other deprived areas.
Professor Kwame Kyere, the Board Chairman of the Allied Health Professions Council, advised the workers to be guided by their Professional Oath, which entreated them to serve mankind with devotion.
GNA